Jane Eyre

by Charlotte Bronte

Charlotte Bronte published Jane Eyre on October 16, 1847 under the pseudonym, Currer Bell. The American edition appeared a year later. The novel follows the classic Bildungsroman genre; structured as a coming-of-age story where Jane Eyre progresses from a young orphan into a woman; the reader follows the heroine's character development, emotional travails, and moral development.

Jane Eyre's setting is an unspecified location in northern England, presented as five distinct stages: 1) Jane's childhood where, as an orphan at Gateshead Hall she is tormented by her cousin John; 2) She is then sent away to a charity school, Lowood School; 3) Her governorship at Thornfield Hall where she falls in love with Edward Rochester; 4) Her time with the Rivers family where she receives her first marriage proposal; and finally; 5) Her reunion and marriage to her beloved, Rochester.

"I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will.”

Charlotte Bronte dedicated the novel to William Makepeace Thackeray. It remains on many high school reading lists, and is featured in our Feminist Literature Study Guide.